GOAL Foundation

Teaching Healthy Behaviors:

The GOAL Young Runners program encourages school-age children to run, jump, and play. Our trainers (the lead trainer is a former University women’s basketball coach of almost 30 years), have created games that keep kids constantly moving while having fun. Our goal is to teach children to enjoy active lifestyles while developing a positive attitude toward exercise. The Young Runners program also incorporates a small child-focused nutrition lesson to promote making healthy eating decisions. This component was created based on studies that show increased physical activity partnered with healthy eating leads to improved learning, in-turn creating an more productive lifestyle. “Studies by neuroscientists have found that low-quality nutrition during childhood can be detrimental to the development of cognitive capabilities, such as learning, problem solving and memorizing. Early malnourishment can lead to deficiencies in vision, fine motors skills, language and social skills as well as an array of chronic illnesses lasting well into adulthood”. (Tim Gustafson, Registered Dietician)

The program currently operates in conjunction with the Ogden and Weber School Districts’ after-schools program serving around 600 students. The population enrolled in the after-schools program is primarily the lower income population of inner-city Ogden – title one schools. The poverty rate for Ogden City, using 3-year estimates from the 2011 American Communities Survey, is 23.2 percent compared to a national average of 15 percent. In the 2013 annual report on intergenerational poverty, Weber County ranked second among Utah's 29 counties.

Community Need:

One cause of the growing obesity rate in Utah is a sedentary lifestyle. With more than one in five of our elementary age children falling into the category of overweight or obese, according to the Utah Department of Health, our communities need to get back to teaching our kids to play and have fun through movement as well as understand how food choices affect our bodies. Another issue we have found over the past few years of this project is the need for shoes on the kids in our program. Every visit, we see kids in shoes that do not fit, or are that worn out. While it doesn’t take great shoes to be active, as the children have advanced from our program up to the organized school track and cross-country programs the need for athletic shoes has grown. The shoes become a source of pain and discourage the youth from participating, or teach them that running and playing causes pain.

Our Solution:

The GOAL Young Runners program is focused directly on battling the growing obesity epidemic in our communities starting with the children. Our trainers have created a program that incorporates play with fun motion and running activities. The kids learn to jump over hurdles (much like life, sometimes you fall and you learn to get right back up). The games we have created teach the kids basic calisthenics, running, and jumping and encourage social interaction. We teach the kids the importance of limiting screen timing and filling time with motion-focused play. In 2005 Kaiser Family Foundation found that children and youth spent an average of 6 hours in front of screens daily (TV, video – 3 hours 51 minutes. Computer usage outside of school usage 1 hour 2 minutes, and video games 49 minutes). The nutritional component of the program teaches our children how to make appropriate food choices. This portion of the program was created in conjunction with McKay-Dee Hospital’s nutritionists and the Intermountain Healthcare LiVe Well program and Michelle Obama’s My Plate program. We teach principles such as always eating breakfast, drinking water instead of sugary drinks, and filling your plate half-full with fruits and vegetables. To combat the need for shoes on our kids, we have created a Shoe Give Back program. In conjunction with local running stores, we collect slightly used youth-sized shoes that are given to those in the program. We also donate shoes to the high school cross-country programs to be given to those that want to participate, but cannot afford the shoes.

Our Direct Benefit:

Currently, about how many people directly benefit from your program or project? We directly benefit on an average of 600 elementary- aged youth, in the greater Ogden community. We are currently partnered with 8 YMCA schools,2 Boys and Girls club and 1 GOAL Foundation granted  after-school programs.